English Name or Not?

(v0.1)

As a Chinese student in America, an important question to ask is: should I choose an English (first) name? Those who against this idea usually provide the following points:

• The original name defines your identity.
• You should respect the original name because it is given by your parents.
• If I am good, others will correctly pronounce and remember my name anyway. 

Some of my American friends, Indian friends and Chinese friends are holding these points. Sometime ago, I've also watched a Youtube video in which an American student advocates these points to some Taiwan students.

Other people, such as Philip Guo [2], support the idea of choosing an English name when moving to an English-speaking country.

And here is my opinion: although I currently do not have an English name, I agree that Chinese students (or possibly other East Asian students) studying in America should find a English (first) name. Obviously, the English name is easier to pronounce and to remember by both the natives and students from other countries. The English name can also tell the person's gender, which in some situations are more convenient. I guess the reason that most Indian students don't choose an English name because their original name is relatively easy to pronounce and already tells the gender, at least based on my experience. After all, English and Hindi both belong to the family of Indo-European languages.

Furthermore, I disagree with the three points that are against finding an English name. To refute them, we can look at the opposite direction: what did some Westerners do when they were in China. During the Age of Discovery, many Jesuit priests came to China and played an important role in the communication between civilizations. These priests all used Chinese names, such as 利玛窦 (Matteo Ricci, the man in the above figure)，汤若望，郎世宁, which are still known by many Chinese today.

Also, having a second name is actually a part of traditional Chinese culture. Ancient Chinese people use their style name (字), rather than their real name in the daily lives. And it is actually impolite to call one using the real name. It is not a bad idea to consider the English name as a style name.


References

[1] The picture, http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/riccimap.gif

[2] http://www.pgbovine.net/choosing-english-name.htm